In a similar move to the one they employed for the recent third season of fellow AMC drama The Killing, Netflix UK & Ireland has announced that the final 8 episodes of Breaking Bad will premiere on the streaming service on Monday August 12th. New episodes will then continue to be made available on Mondays on a weekly basis, airing in the UK only one day after their global premiere on AMC in the United States.
The second half of the show’s fifth season picks up after the events of the mid-season finale in which Jesse (Aaron Paul) abandoned the meth business and parted ways with Walt, who claims to Skyler (Anna Gunn) that he, too, is finished. But, in one of the series’ most pivotal moments, Hank (Dean Norris) discovers that his unassuming brother-in-law is in fact the elusive Heisenberg he has been tracking for so long. In these 8 new episodes the sun begins to set on Walter White’s (Bryan Cranston) tenuous empire as the world around him begins to unravel and he finds himself as anything but “the king.” Yet, even when all hope might be lost, Walt refuses to back down – determined to fight until the bitter end.
“We are thrilled to be bringing the highly-anticipated Final Season of Breaking Bad to Netflix members in the UK and Ireland on a first-run basis,” said Netflix’s Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos. “Breaking Bad is a once in a generation calibre of show and continues to be a huge success on Netflix.”
While series creator Vince Gilligan added: “Netflix has been instrumental in making Breaking Bad the success that it is – particularly in the UK and Ireland, where it has built an audience and become a huge phenomenon. I am delighted that fans there will be able to enjoy the end of Breaking Bad on Netflix so soon after it airs in the US.”
Breaking Bad has had something of a tough time in the UK market. The series was initially acquired for UK broadcast by FX UK, who aired the show’s first season. However, the series was not a huge hit on the channel and was soon poached by Channel 5 for their 5USA channel, but again suffered from low ratings, which led to Channel 5’s decision not to acquire the show’s third season. It was several years later (in 2012) that Netflix UK & Ireland finally picked up the series and has since made every season of the series available to UK viewers.
TVWise’s UK Premiere Dates page has been updated with this new information.
